Big Winner

We often take place and people for granted, and in the process, overlook their curious beginnings.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

(00:27):
of Curiosities. There's a reason game shows are so entertaining.
Viewers love watching everyday people test their skills and change
their lives. Answering questions correctly or competing in physical challenges
can lead to big ratings and big money. Ken Jenning's

(00:50):
famously one seventy four games of Jeopardy, earning a total
of four point three million dollars. This led to Jenning's
becoming an author, a magazine columnist, and even a temporary
host of Jeopardy itself. Perform well on a game show
and a lot can change quickly, but one woman's appearance
on a popular program in the nineteen fifties did more

(01:11):
than make her famous. It made her a household name
for generations to come. Joyce Bauer was born in Brooklyn,
New York in n but raised in Queens. Her parents
were lawyers who ran their own practices and demanded greatness
from their children, boy or girl. The expectations were clear,
do well in your studies if you want to do
well in life. As a result, Joyce spent a lot

(01:34):
of her time with her nose in a book. After
graduating high school, she enrolled at Cornell University, where she
majored in both home economics and psychology. Her efforts earned
a Bachelor of Science degree with honors, after which she
attended Columbia University to get her masters and then a
pH d in psychology. Joyce never stopped learning, nor did
she ever grow complacent. Her studies led to several jobs

(01:57):
over the years, including one as a research assistant at Lumbia,
followed by a research fellowship at the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization otherwise known as UNESCO. However, her
big break, so to speak, came in nineteen fifty. Joyce,
then twenty years old and married with a child, was
cast on a hot new game show called The sixty

(02:18):
four thousand Dollar Question. She had written a letter to
the producers all about herself, describing what she liked to
do for fun and how she planned on using the
money if she actually won. Her main goal was to
get her and her family out of their current living situation,
which was not only unsafe, but also unaffordable even on
two salaries, and unfortunately, competing on a game show seemed

(02:39):
like the only way to accomplish this. Producer Mert Copland
saw something in her and brought her in for an interview.
The sixty four thousand Dollar Question was a pretty straightforward
quiz show where contestants chose a category on any topic
from a large board. As they answered questions about that subject,
they earned money. With each correct answer, the amounts doubled,

(03:00):
so the first question was worth sixty four dollars, the
second one, and so on until the final question was
worth sixty four thousand, oh and The five hundred and
twelve dollar question was at checkpoints, and if answered correctly,
was the least a person could win if they answered
any of the subsequent questions incorrectly. Things got progressively difficult

(03:21):
as the game went on, and the contestant had the
choice to walk away at any time with whatever they'd
already earned, but getting an answer wrong meant walking away
with nothing or at the least five hundred and twelve dollars.
Mert Copland, however, set some pretty strict rules for Joyce.
She could not answer any questions on topics she knew
through her education or profession. Copland figured he could earn

(03:43):
higher ratings by pushing Joyce toward a subject more often
associated with men at the time, like sports. Little did
he know she had an ace up her sleeve. Joyce
had an idetic memory, often called a photographic memory. She
chose boxing as her favorite topic, a favorite sport of
her husband's, and went home to study. She read every

(04:04):
boxing related book and magazine she could get her hands on.
She also had help from a top boxing writer as
well as former Olympic champion Edward P. F Egan. With
all that expertise under her belt, Joyce could have earned
a third major in boxing history. When it finally came
time to compete, she had no problem keeping up with
the questions. Her real challenge came from the show's sponsor, Revlon.

(04:27):
The founder Charles Revson demanded she put on makeup before
each show. Joyce refused, so Revson made its mission to
get her booted from the show. He had the producer's
right questions that were so difficult even the most ardent
boxing fans would have trouble answering them. They also had
sportswriters sending questions that nobody would have the answers to.
Things got so esoteric the host started asking Joyce about

(04:50):
referees instead of boxers. To their surprise, she got every
question right. There wasn't anything they could ask her that
she didn't already know. The final question, the one worth
sixty four thousand dollars, was comprised of sixteen parts. The
last episode of her run was so long it ate
into the next show on the schedule, but the extra

(05:11):
time was worth it because Joyce won it all, every
last penny. She was told she'd get her money after
a couple of weeks. Apparently the network CBS didn't have
it available. Nobody had expected her to win. Eventually, though,
Joyce got all the money she'd earned, and she spent
some of it on a new dishwasher for herself and
her extended family. She also managed to elevate herself out

(05:34):
of poverty. Winning the sixty four thousand dollar Question had
kicked off a lifelong career in the public eye, with
a monthly column in Good Housekeeping magazine, several television shows,
numerous talk show appearances and a few game show runs
over the years, but she didn't go by Joyce Bauer.
The woman who had won sixty four thousand dollars on
a game show and went on to change the face

(05:56):
of modern psychology was known by her married name instead,
Dr Joyce Brothers. San Juan Island is small, just nineteen

(06:18):
miles long by seven miles wide, and despite its name,
it is nowhere near San Juan, Puerto Rico. No. This
little island sits off the Washington State coastline in the
Pacific Ocean. Tourists arrived there by ferry to take in
the island's wind sweat beaches, iconic lighthouses, and gorgeous rock outcroppings.
Much of the island is farmland, and visitors can see

(06:39):
large herds of alpacas. There's plenty of hiking and picnic areas.
The marina is a perfect place to rent a kayak,
by seafood or take a whale watching tour. There are
also two camps on the island, the American Camp and
the English Camp. Tour guides at each tell tourists about
the conflict between the two countries from eighteen fifty nine
to eighteen seventy two, but even before then, the island

(07:03):
and surrounding areas were rather contentious. It all started when Britain, Russia, Spain,
and the United States all sent explorers to chart the
coastline of what was once called the Oregon Territory that
stretched from the southern border of Alaska down to California
and eastward to the Rocky Mountains. Each country believed that
they discovered the territory and that it now belonged to them.

(07:25):
None of the countries asked what the indigenous people living
there thought of this arrangement, though, and discounted them as
having no say in the matter. Russia and Spain eventually
backed off any claim to the land. In eighteen forty six,
the Treaty of Oregon cut the territory into two parts
with a distinctive line the US and Canadian border. That

(07:46):
solved the mainland problem, but it didn't take into account
the channels and the islands. When farmers from both countries
began to settle closer to the coastline, Britain made a
bold move to keep San Juan Island under British rule.
Controlling the island meant controlling the strait. All the natural
resources and the local political power. The Britains sent in units. Naturally,

(08:09):
the Americans noticed. They promptly presented the British with a
large tax bill. When the bill went unpaid, soldiers planted
an American flag in the area, but the units stayed.
Both sides brought in more units. Lyman Cutler oversaw the
American line and Charles Griffin brought in the British, and
while they mostly got along in a live and let

(08:29):
live situation, there was a thief in their midst He
ventured from the British line over into the American camp
and stole some tubers. Having gotten away with it, he
did it several more times before Lyman Cutler shot and
killed him. Matters after that escalated quickly. It became a
shouting match. Griffin threatened to have the Americans removed. Cutler
said that was rich, considering the island was American territory.

(08:53):
Word got back to General William Harney, in charge of
the U. S Military forces. He dispatched sixty six men
by Captain George Pickett to settle on the island. Two
days later, the British sent three warships. Harney sent more
American troops to the island. Back and forth. The escalation
went until there were two thousand British sailors and hundreds

(09:14):
of American troops squaring off. Seeing that they were headed
for war, leaders from both sides agreed to reduce forces
by late fall. By March, both agreed to keep a
camp on opposite ends of the island for twelve more years.
Neither side was willing to give up their claim to
the island. Finally, they decided to let a neutral commission decide.
After both presented their case, the commissioner decided in favor

(09:37):
of the Americans. After all those years, the conflict was
officially over and named for one of the casualties that
started it. That's right, the Pig War was started over
a pig, one of thirteen hundred units of livestock the
British used to try and establish claim over the territory.
In the end, I guess it could be said that

(09:57):
both sides had been a little pig headed, requiring higher
powers to step in and stop everyone from going hog wild.
I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts. Or learn
more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

(10:19):
The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television
show and you can learn all about it over at
the World of Lore dot com. And until next time,
stay curious. Ye